Public attitudes toward wildlife ownership represent an important and poorly studied component of biodiversity conservation. We began addressing this knowledge gap by interviewing residents along 140 km of the United States side of the farthest southeastern border with Mexico (n=402). After controlling for demographic variables, urban background and land ownership predicted attitudes regarding wildlife ownership (p<.05). Most exurban respondents considered wildlife public property (72%), and rural respondents were divided (48% considered wildlife public property). Non-Latino whites demonstrated a stronger positive correlation between land ownership and considering wildlife private property (rp=0.81) than Latinos (rp=0.23). These results suggest exurban immigrants will strengthen support for public ownership of wildlife in borderland contexts. The positive relationship between agricultural land ownership and thinking wildlife should be private property may weaken in borderland areas if Latinos regain agricultural land ownership.

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The Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability at Michigan State University integrates ecology with socioeconomics, demography and other disciplines for ecological sustainability from local, national to global scales.

Coupled Human and Natural Systems(CHANS) are integrated systems in which humans and natural components interact. CHANS research has recently emerged as an exciting and integrative field of cross-disciplinary scientific inquiry to find sustainable solutions that both benefit the environment and enable people to thrive. Visit CHANS-Net, the international network of research on coupled human and natural systems, for information and ways to engage.